New York Is Going After Opioid Manufacturer Insys Therapeutics

Billionaire Insys Therapeutics founder John Kapoor pictured leaving U.S. District Court in Phoenix in October 2017.AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File

New York is the latest state to sue opioid manufacturer Insys Therapeutics.

Attorney general of New York Eric Schneiderman announced Thursday that his office was suing Insys, alleging that the company carelessly marketed their extremely potent fentanyl spray Subsys.

The complaint alleges that Insys told sales reps to get providers to prescribe higher and higher doses of Subsys, a drug only approved by the FDA for use on cancer patients with severe pain, to their patients. It also alleges that Insys led a campaign to "downplay the risks of addiction" and that the company targeted prescribers that were known as "pill mills."

At the time this was published, Insys had not responded to a request for comment, however, in a press release posted Thursday night, the company addressed allegations from the complaint connecting Subsys prescriptions to the opioid crisis in New York. Insys stated that 0.03% of patients who were prescribed opioids in New York were prescribed Subsys in 2015.

According to Insys' latest quarterly filing published in November, the company has received subpoenas from at least 15 other states and has already settled lawsuits filed by Oregon, Illinois, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

“At a time when the opioid epidemic was ravaging New York, Insys Therapeutics allegedly marketed a drug illegally by blatantly disregarding the grave risks of addiction and death that opioids pose,” said Schneiderman in a statement. Schneiderman's suit is seeking up $75 million in damages.

The billionaire founder and former chairman and CEO John Kapoor was profiled by FORBES in 2016. About a year later he was indicted by the Department of Justice on racketeering and other charges related to conspiracy to bribe doctors. He pleaded not guilty at a hearing in November 2017. (Six other former executives from the company were also indicted on charges in December 2016.)

Update Feb. 2, 2017: An earlier version of this post stated that Insys had not responded to a request for comment. Insys later published a press release addressing the allegations made by the New York attorney general. The post has been updated to reflect the new information.

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Reporting on the business of healthcare and medicine, with earlier stints on the Forbes wealth team and editing the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe lists. Pre-Forbes I interned at the Culture desk of The New York Times. Email me at mtindera@forbes.com and follow me on twitter @mt...